The Hub Hornby Mall

Development is going full steam ahead in post-earthquake Christchurch and no more so than in Hornby, where shopping mall The Hub Hornby is undergoing a major expansion.

The mall, which serves Christchurch’s western suburbs, is being subjected to a $65 million redevelopment by Shopping Centre Investments Ltd and when complete will have about 70 specialty stores – including two anchor tenants in PAK’nSAVE and Farmers – a new foodcourt and more than 800 carparks.

Daren Alderson, of architects The Buchan Group, says The Hub Hornby is the only shopping centre to receive Enviro‐Mark Gold accreditation for its environmental initiatives, focused on electrical energy, waste and resource minimisation. These issues drove the design considerations for its major revamp, which includes predominantly LED lighting, rainwater harvesting for irrigation, and a new waste and recycling area.
He says major works at the mall began in late 2012, when part of the older shopping centre was demolished, along with a number of buildings on adjacent Chalmers Street sites. A land swap with Christchurch City Council enabled the realignment of Chalmers Street to the northern boundary, providing a larger area for development.

“Following various design evolutions, the final concept was granted Resource Consent in August 2012, and subsequent demolition, structural systems and main building works building consents for the first stage of works were obtained,” he says.

“Stage 1 comprised a two-storey 6000sq m Farmers anchor tenancy with a further 1030sq m of supporting specialty retail and 450sq m of circulation space. A new vehicle access ramp and car parking deck provides access to the level 1 Farmers tenancy. Lifts and escalators within the Farmers tenancy provide pedestrian circulation between levels.

“Additional to the first stage retail, new hands-free amenities were constructed comprising modern and spacious toilets and parents’ room, providing over-code numbers to deal with the increased demand over busy periods.

“Stage 2, currently under construction, will complete the circular concourse connecting the existing PAK’nSAVE supermarket and the Farmers department store, providing additional speciality retail, a refurbished northern entry, a new central foodcourt and a new entrance from an expanded level 1 car park. The new car parking will link the existing rooftop parking above PAK’nSAVE, and the level 1 car parking in the stage 1 build.

This stage provides active frontage flanking the new entry which will enhance the connectivity with the bulky goods retailers to the north.”
Daren says because the new façade and upper level car deck would be a noticeable part of the streetscape from Carmen and Main South roads, the external architecture and material selections were an early consideration.

“Although that part of the building has largely a service and back of house function, it was possible to introduce the curved building form following the vehicle ramp, and introduce two building elements clad in perforated stainless steel to this corner.

“The vertical Espan cladding, which utilised two colours and two panel widths, worked well to provide interest to the larger areas of facade, on both the exterior and interior faces of the curved wall. Graphics panels, and the black composite aluminium ribbon trimming the facade, along with the stepped parapet and cladding selections provide the building with interest in scale and form, meeting with good urban design principles.”
The high ribs of Espan’s standing seam profile help to create strong defined shadow lines and combined with concealed fixings provide for superior weather performance.
 
Different pan options are available - either a flat pan for a defined look or one with  swages in the pan creating extra shadow lines and also providing for extra profile strength.
Glen Milroy, of Graham Hill Roofing, oversaw the cladding of both sides of the curved facade with Espan 340 and Espan 470 in COLORSTEEL®  Endura ‘Grey Friars’ and ‘Sandstone Grey’.

“The unique thing about the project is that we were given a specific set-out for the sheets of cladding so there were a lot of logistics in terms of ordering and planning,” says Glen.

“With the big curved wall we clad the inside as well as the outside so there were lots of different angles and flashings to work with. There was a lot of work in the top and bottom flashings, which were annealed aluminium and had to be site-painted afterwards.”

Glen says the façade was clad in about four stages over six months as work on the mall progressed.
Daren Alderson says a natural grey/white/black palette of colours was selected for the new build, and that is being rolled out across the existing shopping centre to create an integrated, clean, modern look.

 “Internally the concourse maintains the terrazite flooring traditional in this centre. The ceilings and bulkhead unify the tenancies, providing a 4250mm high shopfront allowing the tenants maximum individuality in their designs. The distinctive black ceiling recess and surface mounted black lights forms an internal ribbon running from the main north entrance around to the far side of the foodcourt and the lift, where the new construction joins the existing mall concourse, leading the eye along the retail frontage.”